Tobi and Christina left the week before last back to Germany where they are working on a free range rabbit farm called Mobihasy, rearing rabbits and developing their own buildings and management systems for the operation. Good luck with your project guys and thanks for your help in the gardens.
So here's what we've been up to in the gardens :)
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Green Manure Trials
The species and quantity of seed used for each patch is as follows
The idea is to look at how fast each species takes to provide cover, how well each species prevents volunteer plants from establishing , the quantity of biomass produced and how attractive each patch is to invertebrate wildlife in the gardens.
The Trial - The seed was sown in the first week of April. None of the patches were irrigated or weeded and the first cut is made in the second week of July with the second cut made in the last week of September. The July and September cuts will be repeated for the following 2 years.
The below photos were taken 7 days after sowing - The Onobrychis viciifolia - Sainfoin had not germinated. The Trifolium repens - White Clover germination rates were highest and provided the most cover. Medicago sativa - Alfalfa/Lucerne germinated but at a lower rate than the clover.
In July we undertake 5 simple tests. Weather conditions on the day of the tests are recorded (see below)
- Ground Cover - estimation of how much of the bare soil is covered in each patch
- Volunteer Plant /Green Manure Ratio - estimate of the % of volunteer plants there are to the green manure plants in each patch
- Canopy Obs - 5 mins observations counting the number of unique invertebrate species seen within each patch
- Ground Obs - 5 mins observations counting the number of unique invertebrate species seen within the 30 x 30 cm quadrant placed within each patch
- Biomass Weight (g) - Cut all vegetation(green manure and volunteer plants) to ground level and record weight of biomass
The below photos are taken just before the July cut - Only a few Onobrychis viciifolia - Sainfoin plants established with the vast majority of vegetation you can see in the below photo being volunteer weeds. Trifolium repens - White Clover provided the most thorough cover growing approx. 20 cm high and a few volunteer plants can be found growing through the cover. Medicago sativa - Alfalfa/Lucerne provided decent cover with more volunteer plants growing among the cover and had reached approx 50 cm tall.
Here are Christina, Tobi and Shahara taking 5 minute observations of invertebrate life in the vegetation canopy and 5 minute observation of invertebrate activity in a 30 x 30 cm quadrant.Lea is on the right keeping records. The number of unique species are counted. We do not identify the species nor do we count the number of the same species within each patch.
This isolated observation test is not very useful and in the future we will undertake the obs tests everyday for 2 weeks prior to cutting and average the data to getting a better impression of invertebrate diversity within each patch.
Here are some common invertebrates from the gardens.
We cut down the vegetation to just above ground level with a machete and scythe and weighed the total biomass (including volunteer plants). The cuttings were used to mulch the annual vegetable beds nearby. Here is Tobi cutting the Alfalfa biomass to ground level with the machete.
The Results
The results from the first set of tests showed clearly that Trifolium repens - White Clover produced the most biomass and provided the best cover. Very few Onobrychis viciifolia - Sainfoin seeds germinated. This could be because we used husked seed or perhaps the seed was not sown deep enough. The Onobrychis viciifolia - Sainfoin patch was 98% volunteer plants so this plot provided a good example of how the wild vegetation compared to the two other species. It's worth noting that in terms of biomass weight the wild volunteer plants provided more than the Alfalfa but not as high as the White Clover.
1 week after the cut both Trifolium repens - White Clover and Medicago sativa - Alfalfa/Lucerne are recovering well. We will repeat the tests again in the last week of September.
Design and Create Webinars - Forest Gardens, Urban Gardens, Permaculture, Regenerative Farming
We're hosting a range of webinars including how to create habitat to enhance biodiversity, how to design and build a forest garden, polyculture design software tutorials, regenerative farm and landscape design, urban gardening and more. If you would like to be notified when our next webinar is coming up please add your email below and hit subscribe and we'll be in touch. You can also register here for our upcoming webinars.
We're hosting a range of webinars including how to create habitat to enhance biodiversity, how to design and build a forest garden, polyculture design software tutorials, regenerative farm and landscape design, urban gardening and more. If you would like to be notified when our next webinar is coming up please add your email below and hit subscribe and we'll be in touch. You can also register here for our upcoming webinars.
Aponia - The Market Garden
Every year I intend to grow more Melothria scabra - Cucamelon . They are easy to grow from seed and provide delicious refreshing little fruits during the hot months of summer. This year Lily built a frame for the plants and they seem to be establishing well with the first fruits appearing last week.
We have started to bring the water diverted from a mountain stream into the pathways in the veggie garden. The pathways serve as irrigation channels and the water soaks into the raised beds. We'll leave the water running through the garden overnight.
Beetroots under the shade of Paulownia tomentosa - Foxglove Tree doing well
Ekpyrosis - Forest Garden
We've been putting the finishing touches on our new forest garden the last few weeks including the addition of a small wetland area that sits in the middle of the productive beds as seen in the below illustration of the garden. The main purpose of this garden is to grow Vaccinium corymbosum cv. - Blueberry and Rubus idaeus cv. - Raspberry while the wetland should provide habitat support for wildlife such as dragon flies, frogs and hoverfly larvae that should help control pests in the garden.
We dug out an area approx. 1.2 m wide and 5m long and 25 cm deep , cleared all of the sharp stones from the pit and lined this with tri-laminate LDPE liner, an off cut from some pond liner we used in a pond a few years back. You can find more about using pond liners and pond building in our previous blog posts here
We filled the liner with a layer of pebbles and river sand and inserted four cylinders approx 25 cm high and 50 cm diameter into the fill. The cylinders were made from cutting a plastic barrel into 4 pieces. The purpose of the cylinders is to provide some areas for free standing water for animals and birds to drink from and frogs to lay spawn. We propagated a number of marginal/emergent aquatic plants from our wildlife ponds and planted these directly into the sand.(you can see the species used in the above illustration of the garden. Finally we placed rocks around the edges and some larger rocks in the sand and these should provide good basking areas for reptiles. The Micro-wetland seems to be working okay so far, although we do need to adjust the sides as water is flowing onto the pathway in places. I'm looking forward to watching the aquatic plants develop and some wildlife move in overtime :)
We've also added two more beds to the garden, here is Lea and Shahara digging the channel for the next section of beds. First we peg out where the channel path and beds will go, than we broad fork the bed area, dig the water channel placing the soil on the beds area, add compost and mulch heavily with straw. We need to make a few adjustments in the height of the channels and then the garden is ready for spring planting.
Forest Garden Plants
Vitex agnus-castus - Chaste Tree in flower. This deciduous shrub is native to the arid and semi arid Mediterranean and Western Asia, and widely cultivated in the warm temperate regions and subtropics. This beautiful plant has a thousand year old history as a pharmaceutical drug, is used to make dyes and provides strong material for basket weaving. The blooms prolong into the autumn and are great nectar providers for honey production and have earned the plant a place in ornamental gardens worldwide..
A wild Prunus cerasifera - Cherry Plum growing in the field behind our market garden. I'll be writing about the wild polyculture of plants growing around this tree next week. This tree is one of the better tasting wild plums in the area and it's packed full of fruit this year.
It's a bumper crop year from plums. Prunus insititia - Damson and Prunus cerasifera - Cherry Plum
I've been growing the productive polyculture photographed below in the home garden for the last 9 years. Composed of Zanthoxylum piperitum - Japanese Pepper Tree to the south, nitrogen fixing Spartium junceum - Broom in the center and Vitis vinifera cv. - Grape cultivars planted around the outside that climb the Broom. Below the trees and shrubs is a mixture of herbs including Allium schoenoprasum - Chives, Foeniculum vulgare - Fennel , Hypericum perforatum - St Johns Wort, Lavandula angustifolia - Lavender , Melissa officinalis - Lemon balm , Mentha × piperita - Peppermint , Origanum vulgare - Pot Marjoram, Salvia officinalis - Sage and Symphytum grandiflorum - Dwarf Comfrey ground cover. The polyculture provides a regular supply of herbs, a good harvest of grapes and plenty of the wonderful spice Sichuan pepper. It's extremely attractive to wildlife and I've not added any compost to the area for at least 7 years so appears to be well fertilised by the chop and drop pruning of the nitrogen fixing Spartium junceum - Broom and other plants.
Regenerative Landscape Design - Online Interactive Course
Want to learn how to design, build and manage regenerative landscapes? Join us for our Regenerative Landscape Design - Online Interactive Course from May 1st to Sep 13th, 2023.
We're super excited about running the course and look forward to providing you with the confidence, inspiration, and opportunity to design, build and manage regenerative landscapes, gardens, and farms that produce food and other resources for humans while enhancing biodiversity.
Regenerative Landscape Design Online Course
You can find out all about the course here and right now we have a 20% discount on the full enrollment fees. Just use the promo code RLD2023 in the section of the registration form to receive your discount.
We are looking forward to providing you with this unique online learning experience - as far as we know, the very first of its kind. If you are thinking of reasons why you should do this course and whether this course is suitable for you, take a look here where we lay it all out. Looking forward to it!
We're super excited about running the course and look forward to providing you with the confidence, inspiration, and opportunity to design, build and manage regenerative landscapes, gardens, and farms that produce food and other resources for humans while enhancing biodiversity.
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| Regenerative Landscape Design Online Course |
You can find out all about the course here and right now we have a 20% discount on the full enrollment fees. Just use the promo code RLD2023 in the section of the registration form to receive your discount.
We are looking forward to providing you with this unique online learning experience - as far as we know, the very first of its kind. If you are thinking of reasons why you should do this course and whether this course is suitable for you, take a look here where we lay it all out. Looking forward to it!
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If you appreciate the work we are doing you can show your support in several ways.
- Make a purchase of plants or seeds from our Bionursery or Online Store
- Consider joining us for one of our Courses or Online Courses
- Comment, like, and share our content on social media.
- Donate directly via PayPal to balkanecologyproject@gmail.com
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